Alabama Senate returns; debates BP, Medicaid bill

The Alabama Legislature returned to work hoping to get the state’s Medicaid program make its bottom line for another year.

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Office of Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh looks on during discussion of the Lottery Bill at the legislative special session on Thursday, August 26, 2016, at the State House in Montgomery, Ala.(Photo: Albert Cesare / Advertiser, Albert Cesare / Advertiser)

But Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, sounded less than optimistic about the chances of the Legislature passing a bill disbursing the state’s share of settlement funds over the 2010 Gulf oil spill, which – combined with other sources – could allow Medicaid to address an $85 million shortfall.

“I think something’s going to leave this chamber,” Marsh said. “I’m not certain it’s going to be something the House will be excited about. But we’ll go to conference and take it from there.”

The bill before the Senate – passed by the House last month – would take the state’s share of the BP settlement in a single lump sum payment, estimated at $639 million. $448 million would go to pay off two outstanding debts.

Of that money, $161 million would go to the General Fund’s Rainy Day Account, emptied in 2009 to offset the effect of proration. $287 million would repay the Alabama Trust Fund; under an amendment approved by voters in 2012, the state borrowed $437 million to keep the General Fund afloat for three years. The state government still owes $422 million to the account.

The bill would appropriate $191 million to Mobile and Baldwin counties, hit hardest by the 2010 oil spill, to fund road projects in those counties. That allocation will likely be the focus of debate in the Senate. With a plan to establish long-term General Fund stability through a lottery defeated, some senators will push for a higher debt payment in the bill, at the expense of road money for Medicaid.

That may be difficult for south Alabama legislators to accept. The oil wreaked havoc on the tourism and seafood industries along the coast. Studies of Baldwin County found elevated levels of depression among residents due to the spill, even three years after the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Sen. Rusty Glover, R-Semmes, said Tuesday the coastal delegation could accept an amendment sponsored by Senate General Fund budget chairman Trip Pittman, R-Montrose – a Baldwin County senator – that would take $15 million from the road money and put it directly to Medicaid. But like other coastal legislators, he said they could not move further off that.

“There was pain and suffering in south Alabama from the oil spill,” he said.

Marsh said he would not have the votes to stop a filibuster if one breaks out, and suggested they could return to the issue in the regular session next February if the proposal dies in the Senate. Should that happen, Marsh suggested Gov. Robert Bentley could take money under his control – such as in the Department of Finance – and apply it to Medicaid.

Marsh also suggested Bentley should look at a compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, who operate casinos in Atmore, Montgomery, and Wetumpka. Bentley strongly denied rumors last month that he was negotiating anything like that with the tribe, though he has not totally ruled that out as a future possibility.

“I think the House has pretty much decided the bill they sent up is very much what they want to see, or close to it,” Marsh said, adding “if the Senate locks down in the filibuster mode, we may not have that.”